Amid rising housing costs and relentless inflation, an increasing number of Texans are struggling to pay their rent and stay in their homes.
Jade Barron at the Family Gateway shelter in downtown Dallas on Tuesday. Barron and her children moved into the shelter after the rent at their one-bedroom apartment was raised higher than they could afford., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
When Barron’s landlord told her he planned to raise her rent to $1,400 when her lease was up — Barron said the landlord already had threatened to evict her for unpaid rent — she and her family wound up at the Family Gateway shelter in May. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, about 19% of renters earning less than $50,000 per year said they were behind on rent.A Fort Worth shelter run by the Salvation Army of North Texas can’t hold everyone seeking assistance there, said managing director Jay Dunn. About 40 families are staying at the shelter, and the Salvation Army has placed another 25 in overflow hotel rooms.
Of those, the number of families who said they were on the verge of eviction has quadrupled. More were paying out of pocket to live in hotels — and even more were living in precarious locations like their cars, according to data provided by the shelter. Family Gateway said it routinely has had to place 30 to 40 families in hotel rooms because there isn’t enough room in its shelters.
Heather Dillard, 42, and her 14-year-old daughter relocated from San Angelo to Lewisville, a suburb half an hour northwest of Dallas, in 2021 so Dillard could undergo the last of a series of surgeries to repair serious injuries she suffered when a drunk driver struck her vehicle in 2013, leaving her in a wheelchair for a year.
Heather Dillard and her daughter Serena Dillard outside the Salvation Army shelter in Denton on Wednesday.“It did bother me to a point because I wanted a place for my daughter and I … where we can have our own private place,” Dillard said. They’re trying to put down roots. Dillard is passing out fliers for her budding business giving voice lessons. She also wants to perform again. In an office at the Denton shelter, she sings a few bars in a bluesy croon reminiscent of Norah Jones. She’s looking for a guitarist to accompany her at live gigs in the college town but doesn’t have the necessary gear — she sold her speakers, microphones and other gear earlier in the pandemic to pay the bills.
“When I went into the office to speak with them, they said, no, that is what I have to pay,” Smith said. “They said everybody is gonna pay what the unit is worth.” Builders in Texas filed construction permits for new projects that will include nearly 74,000 rental units through August, according to the Census Bureau, a 20% jump from the same time period last year.
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